Category: media

ELECTRIC RODENT

A rat knocked Sri Lanka’s state-run television network off the air Monday after causing a short circuit. Network operations were moved to a mobile truck to get the station back on the air. A government inquiry has been ordered. – The Age (AP) 04/26/00 

TRAILING AHEAD

The movie trailer business is booming. With so many films competing for ticket-buyers, trailers can help launch a film just the right way. But the cost is going up – they average about $100,000 currently. – CBC 04/25/00

A QUESTION OF ART

Filmmaker Wim Wenders started out as an art film director. But a series of box office failures took its toll. Now, with some successes behind him, he has a new attitude: ” ‘I think films are not art. I think rock’n’roll is not art. It has great songs, but it’s not art. And film and rock’n’roll are very much the same.’  Those difficult years of failure stripped him not only of faith in himself, but in the medium that was his métier for so long.” – The Telegraph (UK) 04/23/00

IS THERE AN E-AUDIENCE?

Sure, the internet has made it easier for writers to get published. E-books are the “Next Big Thing.” But is anyone really reading the things? A new poll says that “while five percent of the survey respondents said they bought Stephen King’s e-book, ‘Riding the Bullet,’ less than one percent claim to actually have read it. – Wired 04/23/00

HISTORY IN THE MAKING

Plenty of historians have taken director Oliver Stone to task for mixing history with fiction. They scoffed at Kevin Costner’s accent in JFK and wrote off his depiction of Nixon as “a foulmouthed, pill-popping drunk guilty of trying to have Fidel Castro assassinated. None of these details are confirmed by the historical record.” Stone declares he is a filmmaker, not a historian. But where do you draw the line between accuracy and entertainment, evidence and imagination? “What do they want – footnotes? Do they want a closed caption that says ‘This is dubious’ or ‘Please see endnotes for that’?” – Lingua Franca 04/00